“Evelyn thought I still had feelings for you. She called the police out of spite.”
“The wedding ring I gave you became the evidence that convicted you.”
“You were sentenced to three years. While you were inside, another inmate broke your leg.”
The rest of the story I could piece together without him telling me.
After prison I was crippled and disfigured.
I couldn't even get work pouring drinks at a nightclub.
All I could do was scrape by at the very bottom.
I closed my eyes, heavy with despair.
For the woman I was right now. For the woman I'd become ten years from now.
Cedric saw my face and panicked.
He grabbed my hand again, voice urgent, trying everything he could to convince me.
“I regret it, Hailey. I really regret it.”
“Evelyn and I were never happy.”
“She's strong-willed. She'll cross any line to get what she wants.”
“To her I was just a stepping stone to a better life. Our marriage was one fight after another.”
“She'd never put up with me the way you did, never support my work the way you did.”
“She'd never get up every morning to make me breakfast. She couldn't even remember I'm allergic to peanut butter.”
“I missed you more every day. I made up my mind to come back to you.”
“But by the time I found you, you were already dead in that rented apartment.”
“The body was badly decomposed, covered in maggots, and nobody had even noticed.”
“In that moment I was just… so sad. I couldn't stop being sad. I regretted everything I'd done, and all I could think about was getting you back.”
That obsession carried Cedric across time itself and set him down in front of me.
I looked at the lines fanning from his eyes, the exhaustion carved into every part of his face.
I laughed at myself, short and mocking.
“So what do you want?”
“To repent to me? Or to pick up where we left off?”
“What makes you think I'd ever forgive you?”
Cedric cried.
He couldn't get a word out, tears streaming down his face.
“I know what I did. I know I have no right to face you.”
“But every single day after you died, I lived in nothing but guilt.”
“I divorced Evelyn. I poured everything I had into funding the time-travel research.”
“I just wanted to see you one more time. Hear your voice one more time.”
“I wanted to stop all of it from happening. I wanted to live the life we were supposed to have!”
Growing up, everyone who knew us said the same thing.
Cedric and I were made for each other.
Then the Fox family moved in next door to the Gilberts.
This girl full of pride barged straight into our world.
She pulled most of Cedric's attention away from me.
He went from cold indifference to something that looked more and more like hesitation.
It wasn't that I never suspected.
But I trusted what we had.
I trusted the oath Cedric swore on his knees at my father's grave.
He let me down.
And that trust cost me everything.
I knew the answer wouldn't change anything, but I couldn't stop myself from asking.
“Cedric, when did it start between you and Evelyn?”
“Before our engagement, or after?”
Cedric took a long breath.
Like he was bracing for something he'd never said out loud.
“Evelyn and I knew each other long before that. I just never had the nerve to tell you.”
“She was my first love. She always held a special place in my heart.”
“When she first came back, I thought about breaking off the engagement to be with her.”
“But something happened with her family. She left before I ever got the chance to say it.”
“We got back in touch by accident, and before long we were sleeping together.”
“I regret it now. I really do.”
“I let what I felt for her back in school convince me she was something she wasn't. She was never the person I made her out to be.”
“It's you. You're the one I should have treasured all along.”
Cedric paused there.
Every word seemed to drain the last of his strength.
“The way you looked after you died has never left me.”
“I had someone examine your body. Hailey, it was nothing but damage.”
“Your fingers were bent wrong. Bones that had broken and healed crooked, over and over. The back of your skull—someone had hit you. Hard.”
“I can't even bring myself to think about what you went through in those ten years.”
By this point, Cedric had completely broken down.
He was apologizing to me between sobs, the words tumbling out without order.
Nothing he said was as coherent as before.
“Hailey, I know I was wrong. I won't let you go through any of that again.”
“I'll go to the police and tell them the truth.”
“Please……just give me one more chance. One chance to fix what I did.”
All those years I had known Cedric, and not once had he let me see him like this.
First time he had ever cried in front of me.
First time he had ever humbled himself enough to beg.
First time he had ever told me, and meant it, that I mattered to him.
He expected me to soften. Expected me to forgive.
Expected that watching him try would be enough to earn another chance.
He really did not know me at all.
I wiped my tears and slowly raised my head.
“Thank you for the story. It was fascinating.”
“But there is one thing you actually got right.”
I leaned forward and dropped my voice.
“The person who killed Evelyn Fox's family? That was me.”
